Steam Iron

ABSTRACT

An electric steam iron is disclosed as including a body, a soleplate with steam outlets, a steam chamber between the soleplate and the body, the steam chamber being in a fluid-communicable relationship with the steam outlet, a water tank within the body and in a fluid-communicable relationship with the steam chamber, a valve downstream of the water tank and upstream of the steam chamber. The valve has a valve orifice, and a controlling mechanism for controlling opening and closing of the valve orifice, the controlling mechanism including a valve closure member and a pin with an actuating head. The valve closure member is a magnet and the actuating head is made of a ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic metal or metal alloy, the valve closure member being movable relative to the actuating head and the valve orifice between a valve closing position and a valve opening position.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a steam iron, and in particular a steam ironcapable of controlling the emission of steam.

BACKGROUND

There are in existence various steam irons from which steam may beemitted. Such steam irons generally have a body with an interior watertank into which water may be introduced for storage. Water may pass fromthe water tank to a steam chamber formed between a soleplate and thebody. The soleplate may be heated to a high temperature to convert waterin the steam chamber into steam for emission through a number of steamoutlets of the soleplate.

In some such convention steam irons, a control knob is provided forcontrolling the emission of steam from the iron and the rate of emissionof steam. If the user would like the iron to not to emit steam, e.g.when not ironing a piece of clothing so as to save water, he/she has toturn the control knob to the “No Steam” position, but when he/she takesup the iron to iron a piece of clothing and would like the iron to emitsteam, he/she has to turn the control knob to one of several steamemission positions (each signifying a different steam-emission rate). Asit is well known that an iron will be taken up and placed down numeroustimes even for ironing one single piece of clothing, such conventionalsteam irons are inconvenient to use.

In some other existing steam irons, there are provided a controller forcontrolling whether steam is to be emitted and an adjuster for adjustingthe rate of emission of steam. While such conventional steam irons areeasier to operate, it is found in practice that a user has to exert arelatively large force to operate the controller. One reason for this isthat as a movement part of the controller is in contact with a valvethrough which water passes from the water tank to the soleplate, sealinggaskets have to be installed for preventing water leakage. Such sealinggaskets increase the frictional force during movement of the movementpart of the controller and thus a relatively large force has to beexerted to overcome such frictional force.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a steam iron inwhich the aforesaid shortcomings are mitigated, or at least to provide auseful alternative to the trade and public.

According to the present invention, there is provided a steam ironincluding a body, a soleplate with at least one steam outlet, a steamchamber formed between said soleplate and said body, said steam chamberbeing in a fluid-communicable relationship with said steam outlet, awater tank within said body and in a fluid-communicable relationshipwith said steam chamber, a valve member between said water tank and saidsteam chamber, said valve member having at least a first valve orifice,and means for controlling opening and closing of said first valveorifice, wherein said controlling means includes a valve closure member,an actuator and a controller, wherein said controller is manuallyoperable to control movement of said actuator, wherein at least one ofsaid valve closure member and actuator is a magnet and the other of saidvalve closure member and actuator is a magnet or is made of aferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic metal or metal alloy, and wherein saidvalve closure member is movable relative to said actuator and said firstvalve orifice between a valve closing position in which said first valveorifice is closed and a valve opening position in which said first valveorifice is open.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of steam irons according to the present invention will nowbe described, by way of examples only, with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an electric steam ironaccording to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top perspective view of the electric steam iron shown inFIG. 1 with the outer casing and some components removed, for claritypurposes;

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of the valve of the electric iron shownin FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a bottom perspective view of the valve shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the valve shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the valve shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a bottom view of the valve shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A of FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B of FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is an exploded view of the controlling mechanism of the electricsteam iron shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the electric steamiron shown in FIG. 1, with the controlling mechanism in a valve-closedconfiguration and the adjustment mechanism in a no-steam configuration;

FIG. 12 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the electric steamiron shown in FIG. 1, with the controlling mechanism in a valve-closedconfiguration and the adjustment mechanism in a minimum-steamconfiguration;

FIG. 13 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the electric steamiron shown in FIG. 1, with the controlling mechanism in a valve-openedconfiguration and the adjustment mechanism in a minimum-steamconfiguration;

FIG. 14 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the electric steamiron shown in FIG. 1, with the controlling mechanism in a valve-closedconfiguration and the adjustment mechanism in a maximum-steamconfiguration;

FIG. 15 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the electric steamiron shown in FIG. 1, with the controlling mechanism in a valve-openedconfiguration and the adjustment mechanism in a maximum-steamconfiguration;

FIG. 16 is a transverse sectional view of an electric steam ironaccording to a second embodiment of the present invention with acontrolling mechanism in a valve closing configuration; and

FIG. 17 is a transverse sectional view of the electric steam iron ofFIG. 16 with the controlling mechanism in a valve opening configuration.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A longitudinal sectional view of an electric steam iron according to afirst embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1, theelectric steam iron being generally designated as 10.

The iron 10 has a body 12 fixedly engaged with a metal soleplate 14. Thesoleplate 14 may be heated, e.g. by a heating coil. A steam chamber 16is formed between the soleplate 14 and the body 12. When the soleplate14 is heated to a high temperature, the temperature in the steam chamber16 is also raised, and so water introduced into the steam chamber 16 isconverted to steam due to the high temperature in the steam chamber 16.A number of steam outlets 18 are formed through the soleplate 14, sothat steam formed in the steam chamber 16 can exit the steam chamber 16(and thus the iron 10) via the steam outlets 18.

The iron 10 has a water tank 20 within the body 12, through an inlet ofwhich water may be poured into the water tank 20. The water tank 20 isconnected with the steam chamber 16 through a valve 22. The valve 22 isdownstream of the water tank 20 and upstream of the steam chamber 16.Thus, when the valve 22 is open, water in the water tank 20 may pass tothe steam chamber 16 via the valve 22.

The iron 10 has a handle 24 to which a manually operable lever 26 ispivotally engaged for relative pivotal movement between a lower positionand an upper position. The lever 26 can be pivotally moved relative tothe handle 24 in a direction indicated by the arrow C in FIG. 1 to theupper position to operate a controlling mechanism, the function andpurpose of which will be discussed below. A spring (not shown) isprovided for biasing the lever 26 to the lower position.

As shown in more detail in FIG. 2, a bi-metallic anti-drip mechanism 28is provided, which prevents undesired entry of water into the steamchamber 16 when the soleplate 14 is not of a sufficiently hightemperature. The valve 22 also has an anti-drip valve 30.

The valve 22 can be operated by manually manoeuvring the controllingmechanism and an adjustment mechanism. The controlling mechanismincludes, in addition to the lever 26, a pin 38 with a cylindricalactuating head 48, and a valve closure member 34. The pin 38 ispivotally linked with the lever 26. As to the adjustment mechanism, suchincludes a sliding button 36, a bent part 56, and a pin 54 which isbiased by a spring 40.

FIGS. 3 to 9 show various views of the valve 22. The valve 22 has, inaddition to the anti-drip valve 30, a valve orifice 42 which may beclosed by the valve closure member 34, and a valve orifice 44 which maybe closed by the pin 54. The anti-drip valve 30 is in fluidcommunication with the valve orifice 42, which is in turn in fluidcommunication with the valve orifice 44. More particularly, water mayenter the valve 22 via the anti-drip valve 30, pass through the valveorifice 42 (when it is open), then a channel 46, and then exit the valve22 through the valve orifice 44 (again when it is open).

FIG. 10 shows in more detail the structure and arrangement of thecontrolling mechanism. It can be seen that the lever 26 is pivotallylinked with the pin 38 which is fixed with the cylindrical actuatinghead 48. The head 48 is movable linearly within a tube 50 which guidesthe movement of the head 48 and the pin 38. As to the valve closuremember 34, such is contained and linearly movable within a valve tube 52formed with the valve orifice 42.

The head 48 (and possibly the pin 38 as well) and the valve closuremember 34 are magnetically attractive to each other. Such may bearranged in a number of ways. Firstly, both the cylindrical head 48 andthe valve closure member 34 may be magnets. In this case, the respectivefacing surfaces of the valve closure member 34 and the head 48 are ofopposite magnetic polarity. In a second arrangement, the actuating head48 may be a magnet, and the valve closure member 34 may be made of aferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic metal or metal alloy (e.g. iron, steel).As a further alternative arrangement, the actuating head 48 may be madeof a ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic metal or metal alloy (e.g. iron,steel), and the valve closure member 34 may be a magnet.

In any event, the arrangement is such that when the actuating head 48 ofthe pin 38 is at or below a predetermined distance (e.g. 10 mm) from thevalve closure member 34, the magnetic attraction force between them islarge enough to move the valve closure member 34 away from, and thus toopen, the valve orifice 42; and when the actuating head 48 of the pin 38is beyond the predetermined distance from the valve closure member 34,the valve closure member 34 will return, on its own weight, to itsnormal position to close the valve orifice 42.

Thus, when the lever 26 is pivoted by a user in the direction indicatedby the arrow C in FIG. 10 relative to the handle 24 (not shown in FIG.10), the pin 38 is moved linearly in the direction indicated by thearrow D towards the valve closure member 34 and the valve orifice 42. Ifthe head 48 is sufficiently close to the valve closure member 34, thevalve closure member 34 will be attracted to move away from the valveorifice 42 and towards the head 48 of the pin 38, thus opening the valveorifice 42. The valve closure member 34 will remain in this valveopening position until the lever 26 is returned (upon release of theforce exerted thereon by the user and the biasing action of a spring) ina direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow C to its normallower position, in which case the pin 38 with the head 48 is movedlinearly within the tube 50 and away from the valve closure member 34and valve orifice 42. When the head 48 is sufficiently far away from thevalve closure member 34, the valve closure member 34 will fall back, onits own weight, to its normal valve closing position to close the valveorifice 42. It can be seen that the head 48 of the pin 38 and the valveclosure member 34 do not touch each other during operation and movement.

By way of such an arrangement, the valve orifice 42 is closed when thelever 26 is at its normal lower position and is open when the lever 26is moved to and remains at its upper position.

As the pin 38 and head 48 do not come into contact with any waterpassing between the water tank 20 and the steam outlets 18, no sealinggasket is required between the head 48 of the pin 38 and the tube 50.Due to the absence of any sealing gasket, there is no additionalfrictional force hindering movement of the head 48 and pin 38 within andrelative to the tube 50. It is thus found in practice that the lever 26can be pivoted relative to the handle 24 to operate the controllingmechanism to control the opening and closing of the valve orifice 42with a force of between 30 g to 40 g.

FIG. 11 also shows an adjustment mechanism including the sliding button36, the pin 54 which are engaged with each other via the bent part 56. Alower end of the pin 54 is received through the valve orifice 44. Anupper end of the pin 54 is fixedly engaged with a lower end of the bentpart 56. An upper end of the bent part 56 has a series of steppedportions 58 engageable with the sliding button 36. A spring 60 isprovided around the pin 54 which biases the pin 54 and the bent part 56towards the sliding button 36 for better engagement.

By way of such an arrangement, the button 36 can be slid (e.g. by auser) along the series of stepped portions 58 to adjust the depth towhich the lower end of the pin 54 is inserted into the valve orifice 44.As the lower end of the pin 54 is tapered, by adjusting the depth towhich the lower end of the pin 54 is inserted into the valve orifice 44,the extent to which the valve orifice 44 is opened can be accordinglyadjusted.

In FIG. 11, the sliding button 36 is engaged with and received within atopmost stepped portion 58 of the bent part 56. When the adjustmentmechanism is in this configuration, the pin 54 is inserted into thevalve orifice 44 to such an extent that the valve orifice 44 is fullyclosed. In the configuration as shown in FIG. 11, the valve closuremember 34 is also in the valve closing position. Thus no water can passfrom the water tank 20 to the steam chamber 16, as the valve 22 isclosed.

In FIG. 12, the sliding button 36 is engaged with and received within anext-to-topmost stepped portion 58 of the bent part 56. In thisconfiguration, the pin 54 is inserted into the valve orifice 44 to suchan extent that the valve orifice 44 is slightly open. However, as thevalve closure member 34 is still in the valve closing position, no watercan pass from the water tank 20 to the steam chamber 16, as the valveorifice 42 of the valve 22 is still closed.

In FIG. 13, the sliding button 36 is still engaged with and receivedwithin the next-to-topmost stepped portion 58 of the bent part 56, andso the valve orifice 44 is slightly open. The valve closure member 34 isnow away from the valve orifice 42 (because of the movement of the head48 of the pin 38 of the controlling mechanism towards the valve closuremember 34), and the valve orifice 42 is thus open. Thus, water may passfrom the water tank 20 through the valve 22 to the steam chamber 16 at alow rate for conversion to steam for emission through the steam outlets18.

In FIG. 14, the sliding button 36 is engaged with and received within alowermost stepped portion 58 of the bent part 56. When in thisconfiguration, the pin 54 is inserted into the valve orifice 44 to suchan extent that the valve orifice 44 is maximally open. However, as thevalve closure member 34 is in the valve closing position, no water canpass from the water tank 20 to the steam chamber 16, as the valveorifice 42 of the valve 22 is still closed.

Finally, in FIG. 15, the sliding button 36 is engaged with and receivedwithin the lowermost stepped portion 58 of the bent part 56. Because ofthe movement of the head 48 of the pin 38 of the controlling mechanismtowards the valve closure member 34, the valve closure member 34 is nowaway from the valve orifice 42, thus opening the valve orifice 42. Thus,water may pass at a high rate from the water tank 20 through the valve22 to the steam chamber 16 for conversion to steam for emission throughthe steam outlets 18.

By way of the above arrangement, the controlling mechanism is manuallyoperable to control whether steam is emitted from the iron 10, theadjustment mechanism is manually operable to adjust the rate at whichsteam is emitted from the iron 10, although the adjustment mechanism isalso operable to stop emission of steam from the iron 10.

A transverse sectional view of an electric steam iron according to asecond embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 16 and 17,the electric steam iron being generally designated as 100. As the basicstructure of the steam iron 100 is very similar to that of the steamiron 10, we will here focus on the controlling mechanism for controllingsteam emission.

The controlling mechanism of the steam iron 100 includes, in addition toa manually operable lever (not shown), a pin 138 with a cylindricalactuating head 148, a valve closure member 134, and a silicon rubbervalve membrane 152. An upper end of the pin 138 is pivotally linked withthe lever (not shown), and an lower end of the pin 138 is fixedlyengaged with the actuating head 148. The valve closure member 134 isnormally maintained at the position shown in FIG. 16 (“valve closingposition”) by a spring 150 acting on the valve closure member 134 frombelow. The valve closure member 134 is pivotally engaged with thesilicone rubber valve membrane 152 about a pivoting axis. When the valveclosure member 134 is in the valve closing position, the valve membrane152 closes an orifice 154 of a valve 156 downstream of a water tank (notshown) and upstream of a steam chamber (not shown) of the steam iron100.

The actuating head 148 (and possibly the pin 138 as well) and the valveclosure member 134 are magnetically repulsive to each other. Both thecylindrical head 148 and the valve closure member 134 are magnets, andthe respective facing surfaces of the valve closure member 134 and thehead 148 are of a same magnetic polarity, i.e. either both are southpoles or both are north poles.

By reason of this arrangement, when a user operates the lever (notshown), the pin 138 is moved downwardly to push the head 148 towards thevalve closure member 134. Because of the magnetic repulsion forcebetween the head 148 and the valve closure member 134, the valve closuremember 134 is moved to pivot downwardly (against the upward biasingforce of the spring 150) to the position as shown in FIG. 17 (“valveopening position”), thus pivoting the valve membrane 152 upwardly toopen the orifice 154 of the valve 156, as shown in FIG. 17.

When the downward force acting on the shaft 138 is released, and withthe shaft 138 returning to its normal upper position (as shown in FIG.16), the spring 156 will act on the valve closure member 134 to returnit to its valve closing position, to thereby pivot the valve membrane152 downwardly to close the orifice 154 of the valve 156. Simply stated,when the valve closure member 134 is at the valve closing position (asshown in FIG. 16), the orifice 154 of the valve 156 is closed; and whenthe valve closure member 134 is at the valve opening position (as shownin FIG. 17), the orifice 154 of the valve 156 is open.

It should be understood that the above only illustrates examples wherebythe present invention may be carried out, and that various modificationsand/or alterations may be made thereto without departing from the spiritof the invention.

It should also be understood that certain features of the invention,which are, for clarity, described in the context of separateembodiments, may be provided in combination in a single embodiment.Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity,described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be providedseparately or in any appropriate sub-combinations.

1. A steam iron including: a body, a soleplate with at least one steamoutlet, a steam chamber formed between said soleplate and said body,said steam chamber being in a fluid-communicable relationship with saidsteam outlet, a water tank within said body and in a fluid-communicablerelationship with said steam chamber, a valve member between said watertank and said steam chamber, said valve member having at least a firstvalve orifice, and means for controlling opening and closing of saidfirst valve orifice, wherein said controlling means includes a valveclosure member, an actuator and a controller, wherein said controller ismanually operable to control movement of said actuator, wherein at leastone of said valve closure member and actuator is a magnet and the otherof said valve closure member and actuator is a magnet or is made of aferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic metal or metal alloy, and wherein saidvalve closure member is movable relative to said actuator and said firstvalve orifice between a valve closing position in which said first valveorifice is closed and a valve opening position in which said first valveorifice is open.
 2. A steam iron according to claim 1 wherein said valveclosure member is adapted to move from said valve closing position tosaid valve opening position by attraction force or repulsion forcebetween said valve closure member and said actuator.
 3. A steam ironaccording to claim 1 wherein said actuator is movable relative to saidfirst valve orifice.
 4. A steam iron according to claim 1 wherein saidvalve closure member is adapted to move from said valve closing positionto said valve opening position when said actuator is at or within apredetermined distance from said first valve orifice, and said valveclosure member is adapted to move from said valve opening position tosaid valve closing position when said actuator is beyond saidpredetermined distance from said first valve orifice.
 5. A steam ironaccording to claim 1 wherein when said valve closure member moves fromsaid valve closing position to said valve opening position, said valveclosure member is adapted to move a valve membrane to open said firstvalve orifice, and when said valve closure member moves from said valveopening position to said valve closing position, said valve closuremember is adapted to move said valve membrane to close said first valveorifice.
 6. A steam iron according to claim 4 wherein said actuator ismovable linearly towards and away from said first valve orifice.
 7. Asteam iron according to claim 1 further including means for guidingmovement of said actuator.
 8. A steam iron according to claim 1 whereinsaid actuator is linked with a manually operable controller.
 9. A steamiron according to claim 8 wherein said actuator is pivotally linked withsaid manually operable controller.
 10. A steam iron according to claim 1wherein said controller is engaged with and movable relative to a handleof said body.
 11. A steam iron according to claim 10 wherein saidcontroller is movable relative to said handle in a first direction tomove said actuator towards said first valve orifice and in a seconddirection to move said actuator away from said first valve orifice. 12.A steam iron according to claim 1 wherein said valve member includes atleast a second valve orifice in fluid communication with and in serieswith said first valve orifice.
 13. A steam iron according to claim 12further including means for adjusting the extent of opening of saidsecond valve orifice.
 14. A steam iron according to claim 1 wherein saidactuator is out of contact with fluid passing between said water tankand said steam outlet.